Interesting read on how the deal came about.
LAWRENCE NEVER WANTED TO LEAVE DALLAS
During a breakthrough conference call on Thursday between Cowboys COO Stephen Jones, DE Demarcus Lawrence, agent David Canter, and Canter’s VP of analytics, Brian McIntyre, the agent texted his client at a particularly tense moment with directions on what to say.
So trade me then.
When those words never came out of Lawrence’s mouth, the situation crystallized to Canter. The 27-year-old pass-rusher has put down roots near the team facility in Frisco, Texas. He’s close with coordinator Rod Marinelli. He’s a leader in a locker room with a burgeoning young defense. In short, Lawrence didn’t
really want to go anywhere, and his refusal to say those four words was proof.
“I knew then that fighting over a half-million dollars would do a disservice to my client,” Canter says. “I know that’s who my responsibility is to.”
It wasn’t a straight line from that point to a deal getting done. In fact, at 3:45 p.m. ET on Friday, it actually looked like the negotiation had taken a step backwards. But buoyed by Lawrence’s desire to sign, the sides eventually got there, striking a five-year, $105 million accord early Friday evening. Canter took me through how this all happened, and here are the most interesting things he said.
• The Cowboys’ desire for Lawrence to have shoulder surgery created a key leverage point. He played all of 2018 and part of ’17 with a torn labrum, and he wasn’t going to have surgery without getting a long-term deal first. So with months of rehab to follow that, if Dallas wanted him to get the repair and play the whole 2019 season, this had to happen soon. Most deals for tagged players happen in July, near the deadline, but this circumstance pushed the timetable way up. Dallas’s team doctor, Daniel Cooper, will perform the surgery on Wednesday.
• If Lawrence didn’t get a deal by the July 15 deadline, his plan was to report the Saturday before Week 1. He wasn’t sitting out the season.
“We were never going to turn down $20.5 million for one,” Canter said. “This was not going to be the Le’Veon Bell situation.” On the flip side, for the team, if Lawrence did show up just before the opener, the concern would be whether or not they’d get the best version of Lawrence, who’d have to work his way back into football shape on the fly.
